Monday, September 14, 2009

Yesterday we had our first day out in Orlando. To start with we decided it would be perfect to start the day with a real american breakfast and so we crossed the street over to the waffle house in front of us. Instead of writing about it, I'll leave the photos talk by themselves.

Table for four, please!

General View of half the breakfast. Yes, half, do not forget the waffle!

After breakfast it was time to hit the road, destination? Kennedy Space Center, Nasa's Launch Site in Cape Canaveral.

Crusin' the Chevy.

After a 50 minute cruise in our Chevy we got there. Tickets bought and tags on the chest we were ready to go for the Nasa Up Close tour!

Nasa's Visitor Center.

The tour took us about 3 hours and we went from the visitors' center to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) where they assemble the shuttle, then to the Launch Pads and to the Apollo/Saturn V center where there is a museum describing the various Nasa missions across the past decades and also to the International Space Station Building, a sterilized facility where they complete the assembly and constructuion of the various parts used in space, like shuttle modules, satellites and stuff. We also saw the shuttle transportation vehicle, the crawler which moves the shuttle from the VAB to the Launch sites.

The massive Crawler that carries the shuttle.

Launch site L39-B.

Besides the nice buildings and sites inside Nasa's facilities we also had quite a nice wildlife tour since we were able to see Aligators, Bald Eagles' nests, Turtles and Vultures all of that courtesy of the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge. I must surely confess that the VAB is the nicest, biggest and most impressive building in there, sure the Launch pads are quite nice and the lightning masts on top of the structures are quite impressive, yet the VAB is the top notch if you consider the following four facts.

Vehicle Assembly Building.

See the pic? Consider this, we seem quite big close to the building right? Well, here are the following facts... See the flag? Each star has 6 feet (1.80m) from each point to another and the blue rectangle of the flag is the size of a basketball court. The building itself is higher than a 60 store building. And to finish up, the side doors on the left take a "mere" 45 minutes to open up! After the sightseeing tour on the bus through all the complex we finished up with the Shuttle Launch Experience, a simulator ride that simulates the launch of a shuttle! I must confess I was a little bit disapointed, but only because I had quite high expectations since during all the tour all the workers and guides kept on talking about the amazing experience it would be. I must say, during the all visit all the people were amazing, funny and full of life, cooperative and dedicated which made the visit quite a nice experience.

Apollo landing capsule.

After the visit we went back to the hotel and there was only time and patience to go to the Florida Mall at dinner time to grab something to eat at check out the Apple store to grab a Macbook Pro! It was quite a busy day...

About Me

I'm a Portuguese low hour commercial pilot trying to land his first job in aviation. I have a degree in Engineering and I have at the time more than 500 hours flight time and have been unemployed since December 2008. This Blog is my way of exposing my flight experiences and opinions to whom it may concern.